DataSphere’s Cowan: Still A Big Opportunity In Coupons For SMBs
The online coupon space would seem tired, over-saturated, and too fragmented. Yet DataSphere is making a big push into the local-business coupon space, launching a consumer-facing site, LocalSaver. Gary Cowan, SVP or product and marketing at DataSphere, talks about the company’s plans to become “the RetailMeNot of local business coupons” and drive customers through local companies’ doors…
Trover Raises $2.5M to Expand Location-based Photo-Sharing Service
Trover, a travel startup based around location-tagged photos, has announced a new $2.5 million in series A funding. The company says the money will go towards expanding its community, improve the company’s social connections, and refine the website’s content publishing tools…
Centzy Brings Rich Content to the World Beyond Restaurants
Consumers are looking to the web to make decisions about nearby services, but the data is often incomplete or absent entirely. A number of companies have emerged to solve the problem, but with only 10% of business posting information online, it’s still a pain point for consumers. One of the newer plays is Centzy, a year-old startup that is looking to bring business’ pricing and store hours online via a self-built crowdsourcing platform….
Village Voice Brings on a New Top Editor
Two months after the Village Voice’s editor and deputy editor walked out, Voice Media Group has tapped Tom Finkel, the editor of the Riverfront Times in St. Louis, to take the helm at the struggling alt-weekly.
VIDEO: Local News as a Loss Leader?
As local businesses shift marketing spending away from advertising, local media companies are scrambling to subsidize their news operations. During a panel at Street Fight Summit West earlier this month, Eric Bright, VP of Ecommerce at Deseret Digital Media; Mike Orren, President at Speakeasy; and Sean McDonnell, SVP of Sales at Propel Marketing discussed an emerging agency model, and debated whether digital marketing services like SEO and website building could help make up for lost revenue…